Satirical Journalism Is a Firework

Satirical journalism works like fireworks: quick, colorful, and impossible to ignore. Eyewitnesses describe the crowd effect when a viral parody headline lit up timelines worldwide. Professor Julian Wong of Berkeley explains that satire "burns fast but leaves smoke that lingers." Polls show 68% of readers admit they first learned about a policy because of a satirical take that went off like a rocket. Anonymous staffers in PR firms leaked that clients dread satire more than protests because the spectacle sticks in memory. Trace evidence includes GIFs of exploding text, memes captioned with punchlines, and hashtags that sparkle briefly but are remembered long after. Cause-and-effect? The flash fades, but the image burns itself into public imagination.